Melody Kanschat

Melody Kanschat, a 16-year administrator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, will take over the museum's presidency July 1, museum officials said. The move is part of the restructuring that will make the presidency the second-ranking job in the institution. The top job will go to the director who is chosen to succeed Andrea Rich, who is serving as museum president and director. Rich will retain the director title until she retires Nov. 7.

Neither the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. nor Jerry Lewis have said why they parted ways this month, but the move doesn't appear to be hindering the group's plans for its annual Labor Day telethon. The MDA announced Thursday that Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez, Lady Antebellum, Richie Sambora and Jordin Sparks are among the celebrities who will appear on the Sept. 4 telecast. "While we deeply appreciate everything that Jerry Lewis has done and his enduring legacy for MDA, our show will go on," a spokesman for the Arizona-based organization said.

Neither the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. nor Jerry Lewis have said why they parted ways this month, but the move doesn't appear to be hindering the group's plans for its annual Labor Day telethon. The MDA announced Thursday that Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez, Lady Antebellum, Richie Sambora and Jordin Sparks are among the celebrities who will appear on the Sept. 4 telecast. "While we deeply appreciate everything that Jerry Lewis has done and his enduring legacy for MDA, our show will go on," a spokesman for the Arizona-based organization said.

LACMA official to leave The Los Angeles County Museum of Art said Thursday that Melody Kanschat, who has served as president and chief operating officer since 2005, will be stepping down from her position in May. Kanschat said in a statement that she was leaving the museum "to fully explore" her "own career interests. " The museum said it will implement its leadership transition plan in the next few months, reorganizing its administration under a team that will report to Michael Govan, who is the museum's director and chief executive.

Michael Govan will steer the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for at least six more years, under a contract renewal that quietly went into effect July 1. The museum didn't announce the renewal then, but it emerged Friday when LACMA posted its audited financial statements for 2009-10 on its website. Govan has been LACMA's director since April 1, 2006. Having completed his original contract, he collected a $1-million bonus agreed to when he was hired. Govan, 47, was traveling Friday and not available for comment.

LACMA official to leave The Los Angeles County Museum of Art said Thursday that Melody Kanschat, who has served as president and chief operating officer since 2005, will be stepping down from her position in May. Kanschat said in a statement that she was leaving the museum "to fully explore" her "own career interests. " The museum said it will implement its leadership transition plan in the next few months, reorganizing its administration under a team that will report to Michael Govan, who is the museum's director and chief executive.

There's an adage in the movie business that there's no such thing as bad publicity. But all the publicity, bad or otherwise, that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art received after it tried to eliminate its weekend film series last summer, then reversed itself after an outcry from cinema-lovers, hasn't greatly boosted attendance or advanced the museum's bid to raise $5 million or more for an endowment to cover the film program's costs. The protests that saved the program included director Martin Scorsese's open letter in The Times asserting the importance of movie screenings in a museum context.

With a closing rush, King Tut's tally at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art reached 937,613 visitors, museum officials said Monday -- the second-largest audience for any museum exhibition after the 1.25 million who saw the touring display from the Boy King's tomb that came to the museum in 1978. "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" closed at midnight Sunday, ending a three-day marathon of round-the-clock viewing.

In the wake of the disapproval that greeted last week's announcement that he was red-lighting the 40-year-old weekend film series at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, museum director Michael Govan has some good news: Potential donors have stepped up, interested in helping underwrite the series. "If people didn't complain, we'd be in real trouble. It would mean people don't value film at the museum," Govan said Friday from New York, where he's vacationing. "The stir . . . has already resulted in calls from people who can lend a hand."

IN 1986, construction of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Japanese Pavilion was shut down for six weeks when excavation uncovered a major deposit of invertebrate fossils -- no surprise, given that the 23-acre Hancock Park property that includes LACMA and the county-owned Page Museum at La Brea Tar Pits contains one of the richest Ice Age fossil sites in North America.

Michael Govan will steer the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for at least six more years, under a contract renewal that quietly went into effect July 1. The museum didn't announce the renewal then, but it emerged Friday when LACMA posted its audited financial statements for 2009-10 on its website. Govan has been LACMA's director since April 1, 2006. Having completed his original contract, he collected a $1-million bonus agreed to when he was hired. Govan, 47, was traveling Friday and not available for comment.

There's an adage in the movie business that there's no such thing as bad publicity. But all the publicity, bad or otherwise, that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art received after it tried to eliminate its weekend film series last summer, then reversed itself after an outcry from cinema-lovers, hasn't greatly boosted attendance or advanced the museum's bid to raise $5 million or more for an endowment to cover the film program's costs. The protests that saved the program included director Martin Scorsese's open letter in The Times asserting the importance of movie screenings in a museum context.

Melody Kanschat, a 16-year administrator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, will take over the museum's presidency July 1, museum officials said. The move is part of the restructuring that will make the presidency the second-ranking job in the institution. The top job will go to the director who is chosen to succeed Andrea Rich, who is serving as museum president and director. Rich will retain the director title until she retires Nov. 7.

When the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Broad Contemporary Art Museum opened in February, one of the architectural centerpieces of Renzo Piano's building was the enormous glass-enclosed elevator that showcases artist Barbara Kruger’s three-story, red, black and white elevator shaft installation, "Untitled (Shafted)."

Much of the public discussion surrounding an upcoming expansion of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's mid-Wilshire campus has been about money. So far, not much has been said about fossils. In March, the museum announced it had raised $156 million, enough for a first phase of construction -- a turning point for LACMA, which had to abandon an earlier, more sweeping plan as too expensive.